Today, I received this email from andri.manager@gmail.com:
What is incometax?
Would you consider giving me a hand or at least some advice based on your experience? Any help appreciated.
Thanks. Warmest Regards, Tim
It looked weird. One tip off that it is likely not a real person is that he signs a different name (Tim) than is on the email address (Andri), and his email address also includes an apparent title (Manager), which is odd.
So I asked a few of my friends what it could be. They told me it was an email from an IRS agent. The point is to entrap me into giving the agent provocateur advice not to pay income tax, which after a quick search I understood to be a criminal offense.
This is what I found in Google search here:
Criminal Penalties
Agents of the IRS’s Criminal Investigation Division investigate criminal federal income tax cases. The following are some of the more common tax crimes:…
Aiding and abetting: Section 7206(2) is generally used against tax preparers. This section makes it a crime for any person to willfully aid, assist in or advise the preparation or presentation of a tax return, claim or other document that is fraudulent or materially false, whether or not the person who is required to present the return or other document knows about or consents to the fraud or falsity.
Why would the IRS go after me?
I’ve written a fiction book, Publicani, that is based on the idea that the government is able to transfer intellectual ability from one person to another. It’s not a book against the income tax, but it could be interpreted as such. In various interviews such as here and here, I have indeed interpreted it that way.
Also, in this blog, I’ve written in the past some posts arguing against redistribution and the income tax, such as here and here.
With the trillions that Obama is taking from us in order to redistribute to unions and banks, is he really worried about fiction authors and bloggers changing America’s perception of whether taxes are evil? To be sure, taxes are his lifeblood: after all, Obama and other politicians produce nothing. But why fear an author? Is Obama becoming paranoid already?
Perhaps not. Perhaps he realizes the effect that good fiction can have. Look at Archipelago or Atlas Shrugged. And think of the chilling effect on future authors who would write bad things about the government. If he can silence his critics with a couple of fake, entrapping emails, from his perspective, it’s probably worth the cost.
Now, there is a small chance that there is a real person named Andri “Tim” Manager out there who would like to get help on income taxes. If so, then I feel very sorry for him, because he can’t! Poor guy. Because of all of the IRS regulations, it is impossible to even ask around for advice – everybody involved will go to jail. It is exactly like what happens to the people in Publicani who have nowhere to turn for help against the government.
And the word Publicani itself, by the way, means an IRS agent during biblical times.
Added August 11, 2009
Two things happened today that strengthened my belief that Obama administration is hiding behind this entrapment operation. First of all, I’ve got a letter from IRS, accusing me of some code violations. It never happened before because I don’t respect and don’t trust that agency, and thus I am always very conservatives in satisfying all their requirements to avoid any direct confrontations with them and to keep our disagreement on a moral and philosophical level only.
The fact that some private company may be a front for this andri.manager doesn’t mean that it’s not a government operation. With Acorn, Government Motors, Banks, Unions, Pharmaceuticals, and maby others, Obama administration proved convincingly that it does not hesitate to use, intimidate, and take over a private company. These emails ask about taxes, real estate, international travel, international communications, foreign students – all relatively narrow field, clearly of interest to IRS, Homeland Security, the bank regulators, and the like. If it were a private company, just collecting emails. why not ask arbitrary questions, about divorce, for example?
The second thing that happened today was this article published in Washington Post on Obama web-tracking plan.
There is a long-standing ban in place forbidding the government to track people on internet with “cookies” and other technologies. Obama administration is asking to end the ban. In the mean time, it goes around it by partnering with public companies (such as Google) and using their data.
People, who defend Obama in the comments, what do you think about flag@whitehouse.gov?
33 responses so far ↓
1 JP // Jun 24, 2009 at 5:16 am
If that is true, then how do you explain this?
I got a similar email about mortgage rates. I’m a REALTOR not a lender, & I have done nothing in the way of giving mortgage advise.
Here’s the email I got, also from andri.manager.
“Hi,
Is mortgage rate going doing? I know you are probably very busy but I was hoping you could give me a couple pointers. Please help. Thanks.
Warmest Regards,
Frank”
2 Zak Maymin // Jun 24, 2009 at 8:11 am
Maybe the Feds who were posing as underage girls are extending their operations.
It’s sad, that it doesn’t shock us anymore, that one adult giving an advice to another may be committing a crime under our laws.
3 another-one // Jun 26, 2009 at 7:21 am
I got a similar email from the same address, this time signed Terry, asking for advice on how to make calls to a cell phone.
All this nonsense and “Obama’s IRS agent” trying to entrap you are merely signs that you are suffering from illusions of grnadeur.
4 Zak Maymin // Jun 26, 2009 at 8:25 pm
Of course, I have no evidence to prove my conjecture. Tim doesn’t have to be an IRS agent. How would you explain these emails?
But it’s not just my imagination – at this economic crisis time, when there’s not enough money around, and not enough people to handle the government bureaucracy, Obama did double Tax Law Enforcement budget and created 800 new agents at IRS.
5 Kris // Jul 1, 2009 at 9:49 am
I received a similar email.
“Hello,
How much money will i need to buy a house fha?
Before I go ahead, is there any pointers you might have?
Any info much appreciated. Thanks. Gratefully, James”
Kind of comical that the names are different for all of us, yet the email address is the same.
BTW, I’m not a tax advisor, but also am a real estate agent.
6 Chris O'Connor // Jul 1, 2009 at 6:12 pm
I received an email from this same email address. This is simply an email address harvesting scheme.
Here is a copy and paste of the email I received:
Hello,
How much do youo need down for a conventional mortgage?
Before I go ahead, is there any pointers you might have? Please help me.
I really appreciate your help. Regards, Tony
If you reply to this email he now owns your email address and you’ll get spammed. Just delete it.
More than likely all of you that received an email from this Andri guy have a website with a contact form. So a bot sent the message.
7 aries // Jul 1, 2009 at 7:09 pm
i received an email from this guy as well. obviously a scammer.
Hello,
How to import clothes from philippines? Would you consider giving me a hand or at least some advice based on your experience? Please help. Thank you very much. Regards, John
it got the email address of my shop. ^^ good thing i googled it. and found this wonderful page. it’s a scammer people!!! ^^
andri.manager@gmail.com
this email is sooooo much as a scammer.
8 Otis // Jul 1, 2009 at 9:40 pm
Bizarre.
Got this email from andri.manager@gmail.com
“Hello,
How much does airfare to europe cost? I don`t know if you are the right person to ask, but any advice/pointers you might have would be very much appreciated.
Please point me in the right direction. Thanks.
Thank you,
Tony”
Got to be spam/scam, like those before have pointed out, but somehow it knew (unless it’s random chance) that I had just been to Europe for an extended vacation.
This was the only place online I could find talk of this email address.
9 bryan // Jul 1, 2009 at 9:49 pm
I got the same email a few hours ago from the same email address but I got skeptical so I searched around for an answer! Whoever this guy is, don’t even bother replying.
Hello,
How to import clothes from philippines? Would you consider giving me a hand or at least some advice based on your experience? Please help. Thank you very much. Regards, John
10 Deb // Jul 5, 2009 at 12:51 pm
Hi got an email the other day, from “Jarod”:
What credit score do you need for first time home owners?
Would you consider giving me a hand or at least some advice based on your experience?
A little advice would go a long way right now.
I am very grateful for your help. Kind Regards,
Jerod
Glad I googled it-I won’t be responding!
Deb
11 Michelle // Jul 7, 2009 at 10:01 am
Hi, this is what I received, we’re a telecoms company but there is no reason someone would use our service for what is being asked ;
Hi,
How do dial uk mobile from america? Would you consider giving me a hand or at least some advice based on your experience?
Please help me.
Thank you so much.
Gratefully,
Julie
12 Connie // Jul 7, 2009 at 10:14 am
Thanks, all. This is the one I received:
When are interest rates going up in ontario? Your insight into what would be the best way to proceed would be much appreciated.
Please help. Thankyou.
Kind Regards,
Tim
13 Chanda // Jul 8, 2009 at 7:15 am
UGH! Now I feel like an idiot…I received a message last week and thought it was odd the email address was Mike.Power200@gmail.com asking about the tax rebate but the person signed as Frank. I did my research on the web to see if anything came up on the addy, but nothing did so I responded. Last night I got an email from andri.manager who signed as Janet which posed a question about sales tax on a home. I thought it was odd because the way the email was worded was similar to the one last week so I looked that one up and see that this appears to be a scam. Fortunately, I hadn’t responded to that one. What a pain, I wonder if we complain to Google about the accounts, maybe they’ll delete them…I know, they’ll just go and create new ones…
14 Australia // Jul 8, 2009 at 10:43 pm
I got this one from the andri.manager@gmail.com: How to dial to an australian cell number from usa?
I know you are probably very busy but I was hoping you could give me a couple pointers.
Please point me in the right direction. Thank you very much.
Warmest Regards, Kim
15 PamJ // Jul 10, 2009 at 1:22 pm
I just got the same type email. I did do a blog regarding “Costs to Build” so he question did seem legitimate.
Glad I googled before I responded. What made me suspicious was, the email adress was different from the name that signed the email. Glad I did not respond. Don’t know what would have happen if I did.
Here is what my email said:
From: mike.power200@gmail.com
RE: How much does it cost to build 1000 sq ft
Hi,
How much does it cost to build 1000 sq ft?
I am trying to figure out what is important. I was hoping you might be able to give me some insight. Would you consider giving me a couple pointers?
Thank you in advance. yours truly, Terry
16 David Chamberlain // Jul 13, 2009 at 12:20 am
Well, i am to late in reading this. I already responded. I have a lot of pre-approval ads and he sent this “Hi,
What do you need to have to get pre appoved for a home?
It has become obvious I need help with this. Any ideas you have would be very much appreciated.
Any help appreciated.
Thank you so much. Sincerely, Jerod”
From “mike.power200@gmail.com” this is just weird
17 Julie Bestry // Jul 14, 2009 at 10:54 am
As the saying goes, gets “curiouser and curiouser”. I’m a certified professional organizer–nothing I do seems to fit the categories of professions in which all of your work.
The email I received (from the same address) said:
Hi,
What to pack for teens road trip? It has become obvious I need help with this. Any ideas you have would be very much appreciated. Please point me in the right direction. Thank you very much. Tony
I was halfway through a detailed response (thinking, all the while, “Why am I always offering freebie advice, at length, to people who will never be clients” and answering myself that there’s probably a good article to be made out of the content, when I was struck by the address/name mismatch. I’m so glad I read the responses here.
However, the “bot” must be very advanced. I’ve got an article on my web site about road trips, but nothing about teens. Sigh.
18 Deana Meyer // Jul 14, 2009 at 8:00 pm
We got the following sent to our webmaster@ourdomain.com email address, which is not published anywhere, but is a generic address that many domains have enabled. It is also from andri.manager@gmail.com but this one is about meeting room rental, which did not turn up in my searching on google, but thankfully I found this thread which makes it clear this is a scam:
Hello,
How much does is typically cost to rent out a meeting room? Would you consider giving me a hand or at least some advice based on your experience? Please point me in the right direction.
Thanks. Kind Regards, Larry
19 michaelpanda // Jul 15, 2009 at 5:13 pm
I found this page by googling the address “mike.power200@gmail.com” for the same reasons as some of the commenters above – i received a strange e-mail that looked almost as if it could have been pseudo-authentic, but made me want to confirm before replying.
Turns out it’s likely the same bot as above – again, picking up keywords from my blog (road trip) but not really making much sense:
—
Hi,
What to bring on a road trip yahoo answers?
How might I best go forward? Any help would be appreciated.
Thankyou.
Cindy
—
So I guess, fair warning to anyone else out there receiving a message from that address.
In response to the actual post on this page regarding taxes – ironically for a blog that appears to deal with the importance of “intellect”, there’s a lot of unsubstantiated assumption, leaps of (il)logic and more than a couple of non-sequiturs laying about. For example,
===
With the trillions that Obama is taking from us in order to redistribute to unions and banks, is he really worried about fiction authors and bloggers changing America’s perception of whether taxes are evil? To be sure, taxes are his lifeblood: after all, Obama and other politicians produce nothing. But why fear an author? Is Obama becoming paranoid already?
===
If I’m reading this correctly, the author appears to be convinced that a spam message is attempting to dupe him/her into providing tax advice, at which point the author would become subject to federal prosecution for violating a tenant of the tax code/law that prohibits non-qualified individuals from giving out tax advice. The author then goes on to strongly suggest that this message has been personally issued by the IRS – which is referred to as “Obama’s IRS” as if the president had any part in appointing any of the thousands of people who have been working at the IRS well before he became president and will continue to work long after he leaves office – and insinuates that this is an attempt to recoup funds that were used in the federal bailout.
There are several terms that come to mind when reading this, but the word “intellectual” is not one of them…
The most disturbing aspect to me is that the IRS is consistently referred to as “Obama’s IRS” (even in the title: “Obama’s IRS agent”). I suppose that technically it’s true since the president is the head of the executive branch of the government, but the insinuating is completely fallacious – the people working at the IRS were working there before Obama took office, they will be working after he leaves office and it’s not like the president can personally appoint anyone to work at the IRS (perhaps to shake down bloggers for cash?) Furthermore, the portion of the tax code quoted above has been in existence for decades as far as I can recall – well before the Obama presidency, well before the Bush presidency, before the Clinton presidency, before the *other* Bush presidency… well you get the point. It’s been around for a long time and it’s not like Obama personally rewrote this ominous bit of legislation (interesting aside: the president doesn’t write laws, you know. I don’t know who wrote Section 7206 quoted above, but as I recall, laws are created by the legislative branch, not the executive) just to target bloggers to steal their cash. It’s been around for decades and likely even precedes the creation of the internet itself! So to say “Obama’s IRS is entrapping me” is not only illogical, it’s predicated on a completely fallacious (mis)understanding of reality, in my opinion.
Of course, we are all welcome to our own opinions, but I am frightened by the logical disconnects scattered throughout this entry.
20 Hard Tymes // Jul 15, 2009 at 10:31 pm
I got this same email address asking for advice on cell phones. It looked like someone who might know me & me being the helpful idiot……almost responded.
I asked my friend about it, he typed a few things and led me to this site. Hell! It looked real enough!
I’ll start using one of my other Email addresses for junk mail from now on.
Hard Tymes
21 Andri Manager // Jul 16, 2009 at 12:24 pm
@michaelpanda
Thank you for your patriotic and heroic dismantling of this obviously tortured and irresponsible blog. Of course the IRS does not answer to Obama! It is a wholly separate and independent federal agency. Indeed, we should be even more independent than the Fed — all they do is print money; we collect it. We shouldn’t politicize the collection of taxes. From each according to their tax bracket.
Thank you again for supporting our beloved President from such insinuations. Obama is a heroic and too-oft-criticized public figure. He didn’t inherit the mess we are in, he is just doing his best to fix it! And if that means raising taxes and printing money and passing so many laws that people start to fear, then so be it.
And of course, the President doesn’t pass any laws at all, what a silly misunderstanding the original blogger had. The President merely proposes laws that the Congress votes for without reading. It is an important distinction.
22 moom // Jul 17, 2009 at 7:19 am
I’ve had a couple of similar ones asking about moving to Australia but I didn’t check the e-mail addresses or anything. I had written blogposts about the cost of moving to Australia when I moved here.
So what is the point of this bot? Are they trying to produce some kind of guide?
23 Aye R' Us // Jul 17, 2009 at 1:04 pm
You’re paranoid, not Obama. It is clearly an email scam.
24 Megan // Jul 17, 2009 at 1:46 pm
Here’s the one I received (at work) from Andri.Manager@gmail.com — I work at a university in an international student support capacity.
“How much will food cost for a canadian university student for one year? Since you have experience, I was hoping you could give me some clues as to what you look out for.”
Please help me.
Thanks.
Gratefully,
Janet
25 Jr Deputy Accountant // Jul 20, 2009 at 12:20 pm
Hi, I’m Chris Hansen with To Catch a Tax Cheat…
If the Obama administration really wants to go after tax cheats, I humbly suggest he start with a look around his cabinet *coughTimGeithnercough*
26 John // Jul 20, 2009 at 1:32 pm
I got that email as well, but it was signed as “James”. I believe he is a spammer who is harvesting active email addresses.
See below:
Hi,
If i us credit when i pay how long does it take to go threw?
I am trying to figure out what is important. I was hoping you might be able to give me some insight. Please help me. Thankyou.
Kind Regards,
James
27 John // Jul 20, 2009 at 1:45 pm
IP that they emailed from is: 74.221.221.68
28 linda // Jul 21, 2009 at 8:35 am
If you answer this email, it gets posted to a public forum – it is sent on various subjects
29 Jihan S. // Jul 21, 2009 at 9:14 pm
Ha! Wow – I just received an email from this SAME person. I figured it was someone intending to either scam me or spam me. So I did a google search on “andri.manager” to see what I could come up with! Anyway, here is the message she sent ME: “Hi,
Can you wear dark jeans in the summer? I have been thinking about this for a while and was hoping you might be able to shed some light on the subject.
A little advice would go a long way right now. Thanks. Thanks,
Susan” … ??? Not sure what this was leading up to, but it probably would have led to her asking for my bank account number…
30 Mark // Jul 22, 2009 at 8:40 am
Here’s mine:
Hi,
How much does yale cost per semester? I am trying to figure out what is important. I was hoping you might be able to give me some insight. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.
Thankyou,
Janet
31 cash back real estate // Jul 29, 2009 at 10:49 pm
what is the point of these blind emails??
32 Pjs // Aug 1, 2009 at 6:52 am
The questions and answers appear to be used build content for sites such as goftp and xmediapartners; they run paid advertising beside the answers.
Search google with “If i us credit when i pay how long does it take to go threw?” you will find the question and answers at goftp [dot] com.
If you answered this question, perhaps you could demand some commission; handy extra earnings if it wasn’t for those IRS agents.
33 Brandon // Aug 1, 2009 at 5:00 pm
You need to report them to Gmail abuse. I just finished doing that for several of these senders. I Googled the “andri” email address, which is how I found your blog post.
Anyone who receives these emails should report them to Gmail abuse. These people have been sending me the same stupid questions for over a month now. They won’t go away — so we have to get their Gmail accounts shut down. I’ve been going all over the Internet and trying to motivate people toward this end. We have to make their spamming strategy too labor-intensive for them, by getting all of their accounts shut down (as many times as necessary). It’s the only way to make it stop.
-Brandon
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